The present invention generally relates to needled devices for use with fistulas for hemodialysis and blood collection. More particularly, the present invention relates to safety winged needled device which are designed to minimize the incidence of accidental needlesticks after contamination of a needle used in conjunction with a fistula in hemodialysis and blood collection procedures.
Accidental needlesticks have long been a problem in the medical profession. Accidental needlesticks most often occur during the recapping of a contaminated needle or immediately after use and prior to safe disposal. Such needlesticks place the medical professional (clinician) at risk. When needles are not recapped, additional accidental needlesticks are caused by uncapped needles found in patient beds, linens, and in garbage cans, and place health care, housekeeping and sanitation personnel at risk. Because accidental needlesticks can now result in deadly incurable diseases as well as the previously appreciated serious, but curable diseases, the need for eliminating the needlestick problem has reached extreme urgency. In addressing the urgency, many devices have been proposed. Indeed, reference may be had to the background section of parent application hereof, U.S. Application Ser. No. 07/162,569 for a discussion of the prior art of safety needles, as well as the background section of parent application hereof, U.S. Application Ser. No. 07/257, 407 for a discussion of the prior art relating to winged needle arrangements. While many safety devices have been proposed, for various reasons, none have found even a minimal amount of acceptance in the field except for those safety devices of the applicant which are described in the parent applications hereto.
Even with all of the safety needled devices proposed in the art, none of the proposals have addressed the particularities of needles used with fistulas in hemodialysis and blood collection procedures. In particular, where fistulas (artificial veins) are used in hemodialysis, one fistula is provided on the intake side of the blood cleansing equipment, and another fistula is provided on the outgoing side. On the intake side, the fistula is subject to collapsing due to the negative pressure applied to suck the blood from the vein into the fistula, through a needle assembly and tubing, and into a hemodialysis machine. In order to reopen or prevent collapsing of the fistula, practitioners periodically rotate the needle so that the angled opening of the needle (towards which the fistula tends to collapse) is moved. The procedure of rotating the needle, however, typically requires the untaping and retaping of a winged needled device to the skin of a patient. Not only is such a procedure inconvenient, but where the wings of the winged needle device are fixed to the needle, only two positions (up and down) for the needle are available. While winged needle devices with free spinning needles are known, these devices still suffer from the requirement of fixing the needle in place relative to the wings after each rotation in order to avoid otherwise inadvertent and possibly damaging movement of the needle in the fistula.